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Elk gamble with their lives in spring to win a mate in autumn

Safer from attack if he holds onto his antlers

AGAMI Photo Agency / Alamy Stock Photo

By Andy Coghlan

Male elk need large and elaborate antlers to battle with rivals in autumn for mating opportunities, and to grow them they must shed last year’s antlers early in spring. But doing so seems to leave them vulnerable to predator attack.

The discovery came from studies of wolves hunting elk each March in Yellowstone National Park from 2004 to 2016. “We suggest that wolves – formerly everywhere across the northern hemisphere – have shaped the timing of when elk and [their …